Cards

Cards are a common organizing unit for modern user interfaces (UI). At their core, they’re just rectangular containers with borders and padding. However, when utilized properly to group related information, they help users better digest, engage, and navigate through content. This is why most successful dashboard/UI frameworks make cards a core feature of their component library. This article provides an overview of the API that bslib provides to create Bootstrap cards.

Setup code

To demonstrate that bslib cards work outside of Shiny (i.e., in R Markdown, static HTML, etc), we’ll make repeated use of statically rendered htmlwidgets like plotly and leaflet. Here’s some code to create those widgets:

library(bslib)
library(shiny)
library(htmltools)
library(plotly)
library(leaflet)

plotly_widget <- plot_ly(x = diamonds$cut) %>%
  config(displayModeBar = FALSE) %>%
  layout(margin = list(t = 0, b = 0, l = 0, r = 0))

leaflet_widget <- leafletOptions(attributionControl = FALSE) %>%
  leaflet(options = .) %>%
  addTiles()

Shiny usage

Cards work equally well in Shiny. In the examples below, replace plotly_widget with plotlyOutput() and leaflet_widget with leafletOutput() to adapt them for Shiny server-rendered plots/maps.

Hello card()

A card() is designed to handle any number of “known” card items (e.g., card_header(), card_body(), etc) as unnamed arguments (i.e., children). As we’ll see shortly, card() also has some useful named arguments (e.g., full_screen, height, etc).

At their core, card() and card items are just an HTML div() with a special Bootstrap class, so you can use Bootstrap’s utility classes to customize things like colors, text, borders, etc.

card(
  card_header(
    class = "bg-dark",
    "A header"
  ),
  card_body(
    markdown("Some text with a [link](https://github.com)")
  )
)

A header

Some text with a link

Implicit card_body()

If you find yourself using card_body() without changing any of its defaults, consider dropping it altogether since any direct children of card() that aren’t “known” card() items, are wrapped together into an implicit card_body() call.¹ For example, the code to the right generates HTML that is identical to the previous example:

card(
  card_header(
    class = "bg-dark",
    "A header"
  ),
  markdown("Some text with a [link](https://github.com).")
)

A header

Some text with a link.

Restricting growth

By default, a card()’s size grows to accommodate the size of it’s contents. Thus, if a card_body() contains a large amount of text, tables, etc., you may want to specify a height or max_height. That said, when laying out multiple cards, it’s likely best not to specify height on the card(), and instead, let the layout determine the height layout_column_wrap().

Although scrolling is convenient for reducing the amount of space required to park lots of content, it can also be a nuisance to the user. To help reduce the need for scrolling, consider pairing scrolling with full_screen = TRUE (which adds an icon to expand the card’s size to the browser window). Notice how, when the card is expanded to full-screen, max_height/height won’t effect the full-screen size of the card.

card(
  max_height = 250,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header(
    "A long, scrolling, description"
  ),
  lorem::ipsum(paragraphs = 3, sentences = 5)
)

A long, scrolling, description

Sit sapien class commodo vivamus faucibus torquent, quis nisl laoreet. Turpis litora risus a. Aliquam cum est eros felis senectus metus potenti neque blandit suspendisse! Dictum massa aenean porta iaculis sed ullamcorper accumsan aptent. Conubia vulputate tempor at, semper pulvinar, natoque habitant ultricies ligula dui ac laoreet.

Lorem arcu arcu leo suscipit – luctus, justo ultrices diam id dis! Vitae fusce rutrum dapibus suspendisse eget: vel dignissim, blandit mollis? Diam habitant per lobortis curabitur sodales, donec aenean – potenti diam nibh proin? Gravida himenaeos ad – eleifend elementum metus pellentesque curabitur. Inceptos rhoncus.

Consectetur dignissim magna orci quis – commodo sem tempus? Vivamus massa arcu est feugiat per, neque dictum sed viverra nam rutrum fermentum. Dapibus curabitur; ante, aliquet quam id netus, litora dignissim id. Convallis penatibus nulla id libero, velit vivamus ornare? Laoreet est placerat, vulputate eros euismod suscipit penatibus.

Filling outputs

A card()’s default behavior is optimized for facilitating filling layouts. More specifically, if a fill item (e.g., plotly_widget), appears as a direct child of a card_body(), it resizes to fit the card()s specified height. This means, by specifying height = 250 we’ve effectively shrunk the plot’s height from its default of 400 down to about 200 pixels. And, when expanded to full_screen, the plot grows to match the card()’s new size.

card(
  height = 250,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header("A filling plot"),
  card_body(plotly_widget)
)

A filling plot

Most htmlwidgets (e.g., plotly, leaflet, etc) and some other Shiny output bindings (e.g, plotOutput(), imageOutput(), etc) are fill items by default, so this behavior “just works” in those scenarios. And, in some of these situations, it’s helpful to remove card_body()’s padding, which can be done via spacing & alignment utility classes.

card(
  height = 275,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header("A filling map"),
  card_body(
    class = "p-0",
    leaflet_widget
  ),
  card_footer(
    class = "fs-6",
    "Copyright 2023 RStudio, PBC"
  )
)

A filling map

Copyright 2023 RStudio, PBC

Fill item(s) aren’t limited in how much they grow and shrink, which can be problematic when a card becomes very small. To work around this, consider adding a min_height on the card_body() container. For example, try using the handle on the lower-right portion of this card example to make the card taller/smaller.

This interactive example is a bit contrived in that we’re using CSS resize to demonstrate how to make plots that don’t shrink beyond a certain point, but this concept becomes quite useful when implementing page-level filling layouts (i.e., page_fillable()) with multiple cards.

card(
  height = 300,
  style = "resize:vertical;",
  card_header("Plots that grow but don't shrink"),
  card_body(
    min_height = 250,
    plotly_widget,
    plotly_widget
  )
)

Plots that grow but don't shrink

Troubleshooting fill

As you’ll learn more about in filling layouts, a fill item loses its ability to fill when wrapped in additional UI element that isn’t a fillable container. To fix the situation, use as_fill_carrier() to allow the additional element to carry the potential to fill from the card_body() down to the fill item.

Multiple card_body()

A card() can have multiple card_body()s, which is especially useful for:

1. Combining both resizable and non-resizable contents (i.e., fill items and non-fill).
2. Allowing each card_body() to have their own styling (via inline styles and/or utility classes) and resizing limits (e.g., min_height).

For example, when pairing filling output with scrolling content, you may want min_height on the filling output since the scrolling content will force it to shrink:

card(
  height = 375,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header(
    "Filling plot, scrolling description"
  ),
  card_body(
    min_height = 200,
    plotly_widget
  ),
  card_body(
    class = "lead container",
    lorem::ipsum(paragraphs = 10, sentences = 5)
  )
)

Filling plot, scrolling description

Dolor netus sollicitudin lacus porttitor porta odio egestas feugiat elementum interdum praesent. Tristique egestas imperdiet vel, ut sapien et class viverra. Aenean nunc in turpis phasellus habitasse aliquam sem senectus, mus curabitur mollis potenti. Facilisis venenatis tempor etiam: praesent euismod lacinia. Integer varius ad augue enim dictumst at ac lectus.

Dolor libero praesent a mattis faucibus class. Et at aenean phasellus bibendum consequat pulvinar, cursus leo mollis aliquam netus. Felis elementum bibendum fusce – et taciti semper aenean. Nisi platea tortor, a sed nostra magna, sociis viverra eros. Potenti phasellus quisque nam vitae parturient bibendum.

Consectetur non mus euismod convallis, dapibus, quisque nulla phasellus tempus in sociosqu. Fusce rhoncus dictumst nunc nascetur eget; vitae dis. Ridiculus est vel taciti penatibus: netus egestas nunc litora volutpat eu blandit, eu etiam vitae? Blandit sapien accumsan himenaeos egestas lacinia dis luctus magna felis. Lacus tempor congue, cras sociis duis luctus.

Dolor blandit ut hac semper natoque, posuere senectus senectus orci justo. Vehicula phasellus pellentesque, non ac montes sociosqu, etiam, nunc eu cum. Elementum venenatis tincidunt nisl posuere enim litora, habitant netus nullam! Posuere nisl semper metus; vehicula ante; conubia egestas dignissim fermentum aptent. Na aptent?

Lorem laoreet sapien iaculis interdum ultricies sed per. Nostra quam enim sem nam suspendisse a litora cubilia faucibus aenean. Euismod porttitor velit morbi accumsan? Quisque nullam venenatis, diam at feugiat. Inceptos faucibus dictum vestibulum cum sodales porta sem pretium pretium ad?

Amet leo sed tortor urna pretium enim sed pharetra fringilla: quis fermentum. Scelerisque dignissim cubilia convallis penatibus praesent diam senectus. Sem platea ridiculus condimentum urna, sapien eget augue inceptos hendrerit. Fermentum ante sagittis sem cras arcu, cras dis condimentum accumsan. Diam viverra proin convallis a maecenas litora euismod mollis dignissim cras vehicula dapibus pretium ultricies, rhoncus mi suscipit scelerisque!

Ipsum nisi mus porta aptent porttitor integer rutrum augue. Eget suspendisse ante tincidunt – volutpat: ac venenatis magna etiam aliquam rutrum? Maecenas lectus iaculis interdum convallis quis: enim felis magnis litora nulla ridiculus taciti? Varius class fermentum diam aliquet commodo, nunc cras? Auctor commodo quis mollis integer rhoncus at vivamus scelerisque hac porttitor, ultrices fames etiam, rhoncus aliquam montes.

Amet tempus phasellus platea, condimentum, ante phasellus habitant! Placerat erat sociosqu lobortis nulla cursus, imperdiet augue cum. Inceptos venenatis natoque aptent donec platea sollicitudin nisl dis? Imperdiet malesuada orci pharetra vulputate. Augue urna aliquet ligula potenti suscipit sapien semper nibh integer risus sem, malesuada – nunc, lobortis class iaculis venenatis, suspendisse sagittis fermentum dictumst convallis condimentum phasellus risus pellentesque nulla dui orci.

Elit placerat sociis, nulla porta class, cras; morbi imperdiet mus hac. Nibh neque sollicitudin molestie vestibulum ligula gravida eu. Vehicula interdum turpis, montes malesuada tincidunt tincidunt; non inceptos risus praesent. Felis dis massa eu quam odio taciti tincidunt rutrum mauris placerat. Scelerisque class, nostra ridiculus aliquam accumsan, tempor morbi pellentesque quisque.

Ipsum sagittis feugiat viverra a quis blandit. Dapibus etiam gravida sollicitudin, dictum ultricies ornare vivamus eleifend inceptos, tortor faucibus. Aenean faucibus ornare tempor massa fusce – ligula enim luctus congue. Lacus et congue maecenas nostra lacinia faucibus tortor. Dui justo laoreet natoque, habitant vestibulum ad ut aptent magna dapibus.

Also, when the content has a fixed size, and should not be allowed to scroll, set fill = FALSE:

card(
  height = 350,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header(
    "Filling plot, short description"
  ),
  plotly_widget,
  card_body(
    fill = FALSE, gap = 0,
    card_title("A subtitle"),
    p(class = "text-muted", "And a caption")
  )
)

Filling plot, short description

A subtitle

And a caption

Multiple columns

As you’ll learn in column-based layouts, layout_column_wrap() is great for multi-column layouts that are responsive and accommodate for filling output. Here we have an equal-width 2-column layout using width = 1/2, but it’s also possible to have varying column widths.

card(
  height = 350,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header("A multi-column filling layout"),
  card_body(
    min_height = 200,
    layout_column_wrap(
      width = 1/2,
      plotOutput("p1"),
      plotOutput("p2")
    )
  ),
  lorem::ipsum(paragraphs = 3, sentences = 5)
)

A multi-column filling layout

Elit primis elementum facilisi, ullamcorper morbi varius quisque. Eleifend eros litora fames, ut condimentum vel; ultrices a curabitur id; in nulla. Iaculis libero sagittis egestas orci enim tincidunt erat ut. Vestibulum nostra nullam natoque praesent, curae diam sed vel bibendum aenean mattis commodo. Non pellentesque dictum, primis aptent; curae nulla nullam.

Sit at arcu – ridiculus, rutrum leo at habitant ac laoreet. At nam potenti non ridiculus, vivamus ante vel at felis ultricies. Donec ad felis integer mollis malesuada bibendum, molestie quam litora mus facilisis mus. Fusce pulvinar curae tristique ullamcorper. Consequat eget primis fringilla, per vulputate maecenas fames ligula: sodales nullam risus vel: volutpat eu dictumst donec egestas.

Consectetur integer gravida class, sollicitudin magnis fringilla montes rutrum! Platea tellus at fusce: quis id blandit sollicitudin viverra volutpat. Netus varius volutpat pellentesque auctor lacinia, bibendum nullam nisl suscipit suspendisse phasellus. Et malesuada torquent rutrum, vivamus ullamcorper, turpis nunc habitasse blandit. Condimentum aliquet ac lacinia sed cursus egestas nibh: nulla non potenti ultricies eros.

Multiple cards

layout_column_wrap() is especially nice for laying out multiple cards since each card in a particular row will have the same height (by default). Learn more in column-based layouts.

layout_column_wrap(
  width = 1/2,
  height = 300,
  card(full_screen = TRUE, card_header("A filling plot"), plotly_widget),
  card(full_screen = TRUE, card_header("A filling map"), card_body(class = "p-0", leaflet_widget))
)

A filling plot

A filling map

Multiple tabs

navset_card_tab() and navset_card_pill() make it possible to create cards with multiple tabs or pills. These functions have the same full_screen capabilities as normal card()s as well some other options like title (since there is no natural place for a card_header() to be used). Note that, each nav_panel() object is similar to a card(). That is, if the direct children aren’t already card items (e.g., card_title()), they get implicitly wrapped in a card_body().

library(leaflet)
navset_card_tab(
  height = 450,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  title = "HTML Widgets",
  nav_panel(
    "Plotly",
    card_title("A plotly plot"),
    plotly_widget
  ),
  nav_panel(
    "Leaflet",
    card_title("A leaflet plot"),
    leaflet_widget
  ),
  nav_panel(
    shiny::icon("circle-info"),
    markdown("Learn more about [htmlwidgets](http://www.htmlwidgets.org/)")
  )
)

HTML Widgets

• Plotly
• Leaflet

A plotly plot

A leaflet plot

Learn more about htmlwidgets

Sidebars

As you’ll learn more about in sidebar layouts, layout_sidebar() just works when placed inside in a card(). In this case, if you want fill items (e.g., plotly_widget) to still fill the card like we’ve seen before, you’ll need to set fillable = TRUE in layout_sidebar().

card(
  height = 300,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header("A sidebar layout inside a card"),
  layout_sidebar(
    fillable = TRUE,
    sidebar = sidebar(
      actionButton("btn", "A button")
    ),
    plotly_widget
  )
)

A sidebar layout inside a card

A button

Static images

card_image() makes it easy to embed static (i.e., pre-generated) images into a card. Provide a URL to href to make it clickable. In the case of multiple card_image()s, consider laying them out in multiple cards with layout_column_wrap() to produce a grid of clickable thumbnails.

card(
  height = 300,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_image(
    file = "shiny-hex.svg",
    href = "https://github.com/rstudio/shiny"
  ),
  card_body(
    fill = FALSE,
    card_title("Shiny for R"),
    p(
      class = "fw-light text-muted",
      "Brought to you by RStudio."
    )
  )
)

Shiny for R

Brought to you by RStudio.

Flexbox

Both card() and card_body() default to fillable = TRUE (that is, they are CSS flexbox containers), which works wonders for facilitating filling outputs, but it also leads to surprising behavior with inline tags (e.g., actionButton(), span(), strings, etc). Specifically, each inline tag is placed on a new line, but in a “normal” layout flow (fillable = FALSE), inline tags render inline.

card(
  card_body(
    fillable = TRUE,
    "Here's some", tags$i("inline"), "text",
    actionButton("btn1", "A button")
  ),
  card_body(
    fillable = FALSE,
    "Here's some", tags$i("inline"), "text",
    actionButton("btn2", "A button")
  )
)

Here's some inline text A button

Here's some inline text A button

That said, sometimes working in a flexbox layout is quite useful, even when working with inline tags. Here we leverage flexbox’s gap property to control the spacing between a plot, a (full-width) button, and paragraph. Note that, by using markdown() for the paragraph, it wraps the results in a <p> tag, which means the contents of the paragraph are not longer subject to flexbox layout. If we wanted, we could do something similar to render the actionButton() inline by wrapping it in a div().

card(
  height = 325, full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header("A plot with an action links"),
  card_body(
    class = "gap-2 container",
    plotly_widget,
    actionButton(
      "go_btn", "Action button",
      class = "btn-primary rounded-0"
    ),
    markdown("Here's a _simple_ [hyperlink](https://www.google.com/).")
  )
)

A plot with an action links

Action button

Here's a simple hyperlink.

In addition to gap, flexbox has really nice ways of handling otherwise difficult spacing and alignment issues. And, thanks to Bootstrap’s flex utility classes, we can easily opt-in and customize defaults.

card(
  height = 300, full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header(
    class = "d-flex justify-content-between",
    "Centered plot",
    checkboxInput("check", " Check me", TRUE)
  ),
  card_body(
    class = "align-items-center",
    plotOutput("id", width = "75%")
  )
)

Centered plot

Check me

Shiny

Since this article is statically rendered, the examples here use statically rendered content/widgets, but the same card() functionality works for dynamically rendered content via Shiny (e.g., plotOutput(), plotlyOutput(), etc).

An additional benefit that comes with using shiny is the ability to use getCurrentOutputInfo() to render new/different content when the output container becomes large enough, which is particularly useful with card(full_screen = T, ...). For example, you may want additional captions/labels when a plot is large, additional controls on a table, etc (see the value boxes article for a clever use of this).

# UI logic
ui <- page_fluid(
  card(
    max_height = 200,
    full_screen = TRUE,
    card_header("A dynamically rendered plot"),
    plotOutput("plot_id")
  )
)

# Server logic
server <- function(input, output, session) {
  output$plot_id <- renderPlot({
    info <- getCurrentOutputInfo()
    if (info$height() > 600) {
      # code for "large" plot
    } else {
      # code for "small" plot
    }
  })
}

shinyApp(ui, server)

Appendix

The following CSS is used to give plotOutput() a background color; it’s necessary here because this documentation page is not actually hooked up to a Shiny app, so we can’t show a real plot.

.shiny-plot-output {
  background-color: #216B7288;
  height: 400px;
  width: 100%;
}